You’ve probably seen/heard them… you’re sitting at home watching a movie on one of the Cable Networks, and you turn up the volume on your TV because you can’t hear the dialogue. Then, a commercial is comes on and you’re frantically trying to find the remote control to turn down the volume.
Well, no more!
As of last midnight, the Federal Communications Comission, which regulates TV and radio broadcasts, says TV commercials must maintain the “same average volume” as the shows they are a part of.
The FCC has reported that complaints about overly loud TV commercials has been a major grievance since the agency started revealing what the most common complaints were a decade ago.
Despite the FCC complaints, it took an act of Congress [the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation, or CALM Act] to mandate the new standard.
If you still get blasted by the odd rogue commercial, or have some other complaint about TV [well, radio also. But we're so well-behaved...], you can call 1-888-TELL-FCC [1-888-225-5322].
